BIG News | Walmart Black Friday Pre-Sale starts TODAY!

And the sale is ONLINE TOO!!

Walmart Black Friday sales begin early this year as they just announced they’ll be PRICE-MATCHING other stores’ Black Friday deals a whole week early! This goes live TODAY – Friday Nov. 21 – and we’ll be here covering all the deals bright and early. Come and join us with your coffee for some big savings!

Target Holiday & Black Friday Tips

Target is one of my favorite places to shop because of their fantastic year-round price-match policy, bountiful coupons and new Carthweel savings, and the Free Shipping and 5% OFF granted to all RedCard Debit or credit card users. I’m a big fan of free shipping – it helps you avoid situations where you might find yourself trying to slip a giant ImagiNext castles under your coat so the kids don’t see. Yes – I have done this. No, I don’t want to do it again. (Read our post about the ninja-skills required to Christmas shop with kids.)

Unfortunately, the employees at Target aren’t always as well-informed of their own policies as we might hope – and there is nothing more frustrating that making a special trip for a hot deal only to be turned down because of misinformation. Prepare yourself for some great hassle-free deals by going over these Target Holiday & Black Friday Tips – and follow the links to print out the Target Price Match Policy so you won’t run into any issues!

Amazon is quickly becoming my favorite place to shop for everything. I love the convenience (we’re a 1-car family) and the great deals are often as good if not better than in-store prices. Black Friday and Holiday shopping won’t be any different!

Lightning Dealsare extra-sweet sales that last only a few minutes, or until supplies run out

Gold Box Deals are just one special deal that is highlighted each day.

Amazon Holiday Toy List:

While there will be special price drops and lightning deals happening in every category – one you might want to really keep your eyes on is the Amazon Holiday Toy List. There you will find deal on all the “Top Toys” for 2012. These are the toys that have made it to Walmart, Toys R Us, Kmart, and Target’s Toy Books this year – and Amazon will be competing aggressively for your business! Check out Amazon’s Holiday Toy List Deals.

Price-Matching:

One reason you’ll really want to stay tuned in to Amazon’s prices on hot toys this season, is that some major retailers have decided to price-match online sales, including Amazon! Rules apply of course, but if Walmart, Toys R Us, Best Buy and others are willing to fight for your business, you might as well take advantage of it!

Discover Holiday FREE 1-Day Shipping :

If you have a Discover card, you may want to take advantage of a new Free Shipping offer this year – get FREE 1-Day Shipping on select items when you enter code DSCVRHSP at checkout. (Through Dec. 15) Those items which qualify will have this message under the item description.

Those are a few of the new things going on on Amazon for the Holiday Season – but you may want to brush up on a few basic Amazon tips as well before you start scouting out good deals. Here are our top tips for shopping on Amazon.

Best Buy hasn’t released it’s 2012 Black Friday ad yet, but we’ve gathered some information about their new holiday policies that you’ll definitely want to check out! Best Buy will be price matching online retailers, including Amazon, this year, so be prepared to do your research!

Here’s what we know so far about Best Buy’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday Shopping:

Shop online on Thanksgiving and in-store the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 23, for Black Friday Deals

There will be early-bird and door-buster deals, with a likely very limited quantity of hot items.

Cyber Monday is Nov. 26th, the Monday after Thanksgiving

Best Buy Price Matching – Online Ads and Store Ads

Best Buy already offers price-matching with its competitor brick & mortar stores, as long as you provide an ad to verify with a manager. However this year, Best Buy intends to price-match Amazon and other online retailer prices.

Is not valid from the Sunday before Thanksgiving until after Cyber Monday.

Must be specifically asked to match the sales price.

Limited to appliances and electronics only.

Matching 20 specific online retailers only.

They can choose not to match the price if the sales associate deems the price too low.

This offer is good from Nov. 4- Nov. 17, and Nov. 27 – Dec. 4th *Read all the fine print at the bottom of this post.

Kmart’s Black Friday 2012 Ad hasn’t been released yet, but there are some Holiday Policies to go ahead and familiarize yourself with. For instance, this year, Kmart has waived all Layaway frees in-store and online. Their Fab 15 Toy List and the Kmart 2012 Toy Book are out and the Black Friday Ad will follow shortly!

Kmart’s Fab 15 Toys are ones predicted to sell out or be very popular. You’ll be seeing lots of great deal on these toys, including a coupon for EVERY SINGLE ONE in the Kmart Toy Book (see below). If you order any of these online, use code KTOYS5 to get $5 off your $50 Purchase.

The Kmart Toy Book for 2012 is full of sale prices that are good from 10/28 – 11/21. It’s a great way to get a good deal before Black Friday – especially since it includes 2 Full Pages of coupons. There are great coupons for all of the Fab 15 Toys listed above, but also a few more general coupons like these:

Kmart offers FREE Layaway online or in-store (select stores). They are waiving the usual $5 and $10 Layaway fees this year. Now through November 21, you can simply make a down payment on an item and pay it off in bi-weekly installments. For more information, see the Sample Layaway Schedule on the Kmart site.